


Brothers in Arms

by blakefancier



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-11-29
Updated: 2013-02-07
Packaged: 2017-11-19 19:42:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/576941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blakefancier/pseuds/blakefancier
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While in prison, Howard gets a new assignment. Hopefully, it'll be everything he expects it to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, it's all gen right now, but it'll probably move to explicit Steve/Howard pretty quickly. Howard does love helping his captains relieve tension. Of course, now that I've said that, Steve will get stubborn. *pokes Steve*

Howard wouldn't have saluted the colonel, even if he wasn't wearing manacles and leg-irons. Although the man certainly looked like he expected it. Well, tough. Howard flopped onto the metal chair closest to him and stared at the matching tabletop.

The colonel sighed and seated himself in the second chair. "Do you know why I'm here, Engineer Stark?"

Howard didn't wince at the title, a demotion from quartermaster. "No." He bit back the 'sir.'

The colonel tossed a file folder on the table and opened it.

He tried not to look, he really did, but... "Is that my kid?"

"Anthony Edward Stark, born May 29th at 11:12 am."

Howard checked the kid's stats: six pounds, three ounces, and nineteen inches—jeez, the kid was gonna be small—brown hair and eyes. He let out a sigh of relief: no genetic anomalies to be concerned about. "How's Maria? I mean, Captain Carbonell."

"*Lieutenant* Carbonell has recovered and is serving the last few months of her sentence."

He nodded slowly. "And Anthony?"

"He's in the custody of the Lieutenant's parents." The colonel grabbed the folder and Howard tried to stop him; all that did was jerk the chain that attached the manacles to the leg-irons.

"Could you—" He took a deep breath. "Could you leave the photo, please?"

The colonel stared at him for a moment, then placed the picture back on the table. "You're both lucky. You realize that, don't you, Stark? Normally, the punishment for unauthorized reproduction by military personnel is ten years incarceration, a dishonorable discharge, and forced sterilization."

He did know it. The only reason why he and Maria had got a slap on the wrists—a year's incarceration each and demotions—was because of his parents. "Yes." 

"Then you'll understand why I'm not happy about giving you these new orders, Stark." The colonel grimaced. "But the brass seems to think you're the best engineer for the job."

Howard leaned in, eager.

"What do you know about the Super Soldier Project?"

"Really?" Howard snorted and shook his head. "I know it was a failure. The few subjects who didn't go crazy because their brains couldn't handle the input wound up dying of heavy-metals poisoning months later. Five years and a hundred soldiers later, the brass finally shut it down."

"There were actually five projects running under the name. Four of them were failures." The colonel shoved another file in front of Howard. "The last one, run by Doctor Abraham Erskine, wasn't."

"Erskine?" Howard looked up from the file. "I thought the Skull's men assassinated him." 

"They did. But not before he managed one small miracle." The colonel didn’t sound very happy about it.

Howard skimmed the file and laughed. "The bastard succeeded! He— these aren't tech enhancements." He frowned. "What is this?"

"Erskine didn't believe that technology was going to win us the war. His enhancements were biological. He wanted to create a soldier who was at the peak of human perfection. And he succeeded, once, before he was murdered. We haven't been able to reproduce the experiment since."

"And you want me to try?" he asked hesitantly. Biology really wasn't his area of expertise.

The colonel scoffed. "No, The soldier, Captain Steven Rogers, needs an engineer for his unit and the brass feels you'd be the best fit."

"Oh." Howard grinned, feeling oddly pleased. "Well, of course. I do have the highest intelligence rating of any technician-grade soldier in the military." 

The colonel narrowed his eyes and growled softly. "Your job is to keep him alive and happy, Stark."

"I always keep my captains happy," He gave the colonel a cocky grin before letting it slip away. "And I *always* do my best to keep my units alive. *Always*, Colonel." 

"Try harder this time, Stark." The colonel stared at him "The survival rate of your units is abysmal."

Howard clenched his hands into fists and fought the urge to throttle the man. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "So's yours, Colonel. So's everybody's." They were losing the war; everyone knew it. He got to his feet, grabbed the picture of his kid, and gestured to the guard. "I'm ready to go back to my cell now." 

***** 

The living quarters for each unit were basic. They consisted of three rooms: the bathroom/showers, the captain's quarters, and barracks for the rest of the soldiers. Except for Basic, Howard never had to worry about sleeping in the barracks, thank God. He fucking hated it. 

He walked into the Howling Commandos' barracks (which sounded a hell of a lot more fun than their official designation: Unit 4857393NK), duffle bag in one hand, and his toolbox in another, and said, "Engineer Howard Stark reporting for duty. I'd salute, but I don't feel like braining myself." Everyone in the room looked towards him with varying degrees of interest and he smiled. He didn't see Captain Rogers, but that didn't surprise him. 

One of the men, dark hair, blue eyes, got up from his bunk and walked over to him. "Cap's been waitin' for ya all morning. Sergeant Bucky Barnes."

"Nice to meet you, Sergeant." 

"Let me introduce you to the guys." Barnes gestured to each of the men. "The guy in the funny hat's Dum Dum, the guy in the other funny hat is Falsworth, Morita, Jones, and Dernier."

Howard nodded a hello. "Where's the Captain's room? I'd like to put my stuff down." 

"Actually—" Bucky started and Howard didn't roll his eyes because the protests happened every goddamn time.

"Never mind, I see it. Thanks." He moved past Barnes to the closed door on the far side of the room. That was the nice thing about the military, they never deviated from their standard design. The room wasn't overly spacious, but that was alright, because it had a lovely king sized bed. He grinned, tossed his duffle bag next to the dresser, set his toolbox on the desk, and stretched out on the bed with a happy groan. It's been a year since he'd slept on a comfortable bed. In prison, the bed had been tiny with a thin, lumpy mattress that smelled. 

He wrinkled his nose at the memory, then pulled off his boots and jacket and got comfortable. He wanted to rest his eyes a bit before meeting Rogers. 

***** 

Howard must have been more tired than he thought because the next thing he knew someone was shaking him awake. He grumbled and flailed but that didn't seem to help. He slowly opened his eyes and smiled because, wow, what a view. Normally, he went for brunettes or redheads, but he was willing to make an exception for this blond-haired, blue-eyed god! "Jesus, you're gorgeous," he muttered. 

The man blushed. "You must be Engineer Stark. I'm Captain Rogers, your CO." 

"Oh, hey." Howard smiled and propped himself up on his elbows. "Yeah, um, sorry. Must have been more tired than I thought. Engineer Stark reporting for duty, sir." 

"I'd tell you to put yourself at ease, but it seems that you already have." Rogers raised an eyebrow; Howard just shrugged. "Why are you in my quarters anyway?"

Oh, it was gonna be like that, was it? "Our quarters, sir. Regulation 26.3 states that technicians share quarters with their captains for stress relief."

Rogers blushed again, even the tips of his ears turned red. "I… I don't need you to do that." 

Precious. "With all due respect, Captain, it's my job to determine the needs of the unit and provide what I think is necessary. If certain types of stress relief aren't to your liking, there are plenty of other techniques I can use." He gave Rogers his dirtiest smile. "I promise not to do anything you don't like." 

Rogers sputtered and stuttered out a few words. God, he was young.

Howard waited until Rogers managed to calm down, then he got out of bed and pulled on his boots. "I'd like to start by inspecting everyone's gear, sir. Now, if possible." 

"Now?" Rogers blinked, then rubbed the back of his neck. "Sure. Um… ask one of the guys to take you to the weapons locker."

"Sure." Howard fought the urge to shake his head. Super Soldier or not, it was obvious that Rogers was wet behind the ears.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Howard gets back into the groove of military life and learns a few things about his new unit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm just ambling along here, folks, checking out the scenery, seeing what I can see. There will maybe, probably, be Steve/Howard in the future, there will definitely be some Howard-bb!Tony interactions as well as Howard/Maria. We shall see! In the meantime, I am off to work on the next bit of "Bolt Out the Sun".

The state of their gear was absolutely ridiculous. Most of what they had was old and obsolete and he wouldn't let his worst enemy use it. Howard could probably upgrade some of the weapons and comms equipment himself, but the body armor was useless. 

He made a list of things the unit would need; he would get about a quarter of it, at best. The rest, Howard would have to steal, barter, or buy himself. Damn it, he'd have to write his father for money.

By the time he was done, it was late. He shuffled to his quarters as quietly as possible, shucked off his clothing, and crawled into bed behind Rogers, moaning in pleasure. He hadn't realized how exhausted he actually was until now. 

Rogers rolled over. "Our equipment is pretty bad."

Howard grunted softly. "Yeah, but don't worry, Cap. I'll get you what you need. Gimme a few weeks and we'll be good to go."

"You look tired. Did you make it out of the weapons locker at all? Did you eat today?"

"I had a sandwich," he mumbled. 

"It's gonna be like that, is it?" Rogers smiled. "Close your eyes, Stark. I wanna run us through the paces tomorrow."

Howard hummed in response and fell asleep.

***** 

Howard settled into his chair, turned on the video feeds, and put on his headset. "Check, check, one, two, three, four. Everyone give me audio confirmation, starting with you, Cap." 

"Hear you loud and clear, Engineer," Rogers said. 

The others gave him audio confirmation. 

"Copy, that. I've got visuals, too. Give me a one sixty, Cap. I need the lay of the land. Perfect." He let the computer map the surrounding area, then he synced to the closest satellite. "Alright boys, it's a rough terrain out there. I've got a thermal lock on a dozen unfriendlies about a klick southwest of your position. Proceed with caution."

"We copy that, Engineer." Steve's voice was deep and quiet. "Move out, men. We got a flag to capture." 

Howard kept his eyes moving on the video and satellite feeds, letting the banter between the soldiers wash over him like white noise. After a year out of the seat, it felt good to be back doing what he was trained to do. He hoped that Maria was doing okay, too. 

"Tell me, Cap, is our engineer a good ride?" Barnes asked, humor coloring his voice.

"Of course he is,' Dum Dum replied. "Technicians take classes for that sort of thing. I knew one engineer who could do this thing with her tongue that almost made the top of my head fall off." 

The other guys laughed and began trading stories. Cap was strangely quiet.

"You still haven't answered my question, Cap." Bucky looked at Rogers; even as dark as it was, Howard could see that Cap was blushing.

Howard grinned and shook his head. "Leave him alone, Barnes. He hasn't had the honor yet. Trust me, when he does, you'll hear it. I'm mouthy." 

"That's enough chatter, boys," Steve said. "We're not here to talk about… about that."

"Someone's a prude." Howard chuckled. Then he saw a flash of something on the map and he got back to work. "Look alive, boys, you got incoming. There are two units from the east, coming in fast and hot. I'm notifying base to intercept. There's a copse of trees a few meters out; it'll give you appropriate cover. You got visual?" 

"Yeah, we got visual. We're heading there now. Double-time, boys!" 

Howard's fingers flew over the keyboard. "I got men intercepting the units. If you keep to the tree line, you ought to be fine for awhile."

"Copy that, Engineer." Rogers laughed softly. "You're better than the last tech the brass sent us. We didn't even get out of the gate before we were hit." 

"Well, I'm the best, Cap. Not only am I gonna get you that flag, but I'm gonna suck you so good, you won't be able to walk for a week." 

"Sweet talker," Rogers said.

***** 

The Howling Commandos walked into base, flag in hand, dirty, but triumphant. Not only did Howard help them get the flag, but he made sure they didn’t incur any deaths or casualties—not a splatter of paint graced their body armor. 

He was waiting for them in the barracks, lounging on Barnes's bed. Each man passed by him and ran their fingers through his hair or gave him a pat on the shoulder. 

Barnes shoved him and grinned. "You got your own bed, smartass."

"Sir, yes, sir!" Howard saluted and rolled off the bed onto his feet. He walked over to Cap and smiled. "Engineer Stark reporting for duty, Captain."

Rogers blushed bright red, but rolled his eyes when the guys catcalled and jeered. "Good job, Engineer Stark." 

"Thank you, sir." He tilted his head and lowered his lashes. "All in a day's work. Is there anything else I can do for you, sir?"

Rogers took a few steps back and cleared his throat. "We're going out for drinks, you should come." Before Howard could respond, Rogers retreated to his room and actually locked the door. 

Howard must have looked miffed, because Dernier gave him a sympathetic look. "Don't feel so bad, Stark. It's not you, it's him." 

"Yeah, no one can compare to dear, sweet, Peggy." Morita put his hand over his heart and fluttered his eyes. 

"Who's Peggy?" Howard frowned. "Her name wasn't in his file."

"Wouldn't be. She ain't in anybody's files." Bucky pulled off his boot and groaned. "Agent Margaret Carter with the SSR. Steve's sweet on her, has been since before the experiment." 

"What's that got to do with anything?" 

"Steve's different." Bucky shrugged and exchanged looks with the other guys. "He's not gonna fuck you just because he's got an itch. There's gotta be an emotional component."

"Emotional component?" Howard shook his head; he wasn't getting something here. "I’m his engineer. How do you get more emotional than that?" 

"He's gotta be in love, Stark."

"Love? What the hell does that have to do with anything?" They were soldiers, they couldn’t afford things like love and family. That's why he and Maria each got a year in prison.

"It's the way he is. The sooner you understand that, the better." 

Well, that was just a bunch of bullshit. Love was great and everything, but Howard had a duty to take care of his captain, and Rogers had a duty to let him. Howard pressed his lips together. If that was how Rogers wanted to play it, well, Howard was ready to go above and beyond. He gave up too much not to.


End file.
